What type of applications would be handled substantially better on a Core i7 than a Core i5? And how much better?

Is it worth the extra money?

Alexandra Momo

February 2, 2013 at 10:40 pm

Well, you can also get an i5 and overclock it for a better price, but I don't think you will spend your time on overclocking. So everything depends on what do you want to do with your computer. If it's only for business and you wont do any video editing or games, then the lowest price will be the best for you. If not, then go with what the other comments say.

Ahmed Musani

December 16, 2012 at 9:03 am

if you video edit a lot and do tasks which require great processor power then its definitely worth the money.

if you want extra performance ... then obviously it is worth the extra buck ... if you use photoshop often, it would be very usefull

Ben Jacobs

December 16, 2012 at 3:00 am

Among other posts that are on here: the biggest thing that relates to whether or not you should have an i7 or i5 or any multi core above 2 is whether or not your software demands it.
Most software that is written is not utilizing multi-cores. Software engineers are primarily interested in getting out their software quickly but a lot of them are not coding for multiple cores. Which is sad, since the added horsepower of the additional cores is just sitting the stagnant. But this boils down to the level of the software in that it could definitely benefit from the processing power but is under utilized. And that is mostly due to costs for the developers to rewrite the software to do just that.
Sometimes you can go and change what programs use what cores to free up the system to use the other system processes to just run windows but then it is still far between. I really wish there was a setting to in windows to allow all cores to be sharing all cores equally but there doesn't seem to be one.
As others have stated, unless there is some specifically written software to use all of the available cores, it just won't happen.
Most times people that use their computers "lightly" will not benefit from more cores because they won't ever be used.
Gamers and people doing video editing or whatnot will see some benefit from it. Mostly due to the fact that the software utilizes the cores more effectively.
Even then, if you have a moderate GPU card installed a lot of that processing will be off loaded to that instead. Again relieving pressure from the CPU and there you have the problem that more cores in the CPU doesn't help much, at all.
Right now I tell most of my family and friends that, unless doing lots of CPU intensive programs that will tax the CPU, then stick to 4 or less cores. That saves money and isn't wasted on just having something highend for nothing in return.

Âdil Farôôq

December 15, 2012 at 6:29 pm

There is not a big difference unless you are doing some graphical work like video editing etc

Jan Fritsch

December 15, 2012 at 5:41 pm

It highly depends on the exact processors ~ a "high-end" i5 can be about the same or better than a "low-end" i7.

For the desktop CPU's the main difference is that the Core i7 have higher frequency, more cache and support Hyper-Threading.

For mobile CPU's it gets a bit more complicated.
Mobile Core i5 are only dual-core but some of them support Hyper-Threading.
Mobile Core i7 are dual- or quad-core all with Hyper-Threading.
Frequency an cache differ for all of them.

You can assume that a Core i7 will offer more performance overall but one can only draw a conclusion knowing the exact model and specifications to make a comparison.

As for what applications benefit from it ~ well, anything that requires CPU time and performance.

If you have a 5000 rows x 10 columns Excel sheet that has a lot of nested calculations it will benefit from the i7 performance. If you have a 5000x10 Excel sheet for storing contact information there probably won't be a difference.

Any CPU based rendering or encoding operation will benefit from it, that includes e.g. video playback of HD content. However, if the player and encoder support GPU acceleration the CPU won't make a difference. Some Java application on the web doing regular operations will benefit from it.

Rohit Jhawer

December 15, 2012 at 12:35 pm

It is worth the extra money if you use applications which use heavy processing power to render or create graphics. Something like Photoshop or any 3d designing software. Games also use the extra power. Its only worth it, if your work is totally based on processing power.

Joseph Videtto

December 15, 2012 at 11:48 am

...why ?

Joseph Videtto

December 15, 2012 at 11:48 am

...yes, that is my question - how so ?

ha14

December 15, 2012 at 10:49 am

you'll get faster CPU performance from Core i7 parts than Core i5, Core i7 processors have larger cache (on-board memory) to help the processor deal with repetitive tasks faster, On currently available desktop processors, i5 CPUs have 3MB to 6MB of L3 cache, while i7 processors have 8MB to 15MB.

if you are high end user then core i7 should be your partner.

Joseph Videtto

December 15, 2012 at 11:49 am

...thanks for the details in your response - for some reason lots of people share their opinion without supporting it in any way : )

ha14

December 15, 2012 at 12:34 pm

Quite right, benchmark is necessary, core i processors are good ones committing to one particular core i processor depends on the user on how using Windows daily.

it depends on CPU (GHZ ) and cores along with it , i7 is better comparing to i5 when it comes to multimedia/video editing softwares

Fawad Mirzad

December 15, 2012 at 7:17 am

If you use high quality games or use some applications like adobe premier, maya, 3dmax or other application that requires lots of resources then yes it worths. other than that if you want it for browsing, working with office, Emailing and other application which do not requires lots of resources. even a Core i3 well work fine for you.

Declan Lopez

December 15, 2012 at 6:55 am

unless you're doing any video editing you should be fine with the i5

Sachin Kanchan

December 15, 2012 at 3:16 am

As Manuel wrote; just the name itself is not enough to determine the speed of the processor.

Check the speed in GHz, and the number of cores.
For ex- you can have a dual core (2 cores) - Core i5 and a Quad core(4 cores) - Core i5, the latter of which is powerful.

However for long term investment I would recommend Core i7 if other specifications like No. of Cores are same (4), and there is not much difference in Speed (GHz)

On bigger applications like Adobe CS5 or CS6, or any other heavier applicaions Core i7 would be much more worthy.

When it comes to Solid Modelling, Designing and 3D rendering ...truly the Graphics card has a primay role, but he fluidity and smoothness or time required for such oiperations is vastly reduced if you have a Core i7.

a Core i7 upgrade will get you more processor cache, more clock speed, and Hyper-threading. There is no Core i5 desktop processor with Hyper-threading and there is only one seldom-seen Core i5 desktop chip with only two cores

if you are a die hard gamer, then i7 is an obvious choice, thoug it may cost a bit more...

otherwise you would be great with a quad core i5 3rd gen...

Anonymous

December 15, 2012 at 3:05 am

It really depends on whether or not you will use all the cores. If you're going to run software that demands a lot then yes it's worth it.

Manuel Guillermo López Buenfil

December 15, 2012 at 2:42 am

it is worth it if you use it. It is most likely that you won't use it.
Most people don't, and if you don't know chances are you don't need it.
CPU intensive applications include video editing and 3D modeling (when rendering).
For games, the GPU is more important.
Keep in mind that i5 and i7 refer to a lot of different processors, so these names don't mean much by themselves. You should check the speed (GHz), number of cores and number of threads to be able to make a decision. You can find that information here: http://ark.intel.com/

James Maciel

December 15, 2012 at 12:07 am

Anything that uses a lot of threads such as video editing, 3d modeling/effects, etc. If you need the extra performance it is definately worth the money